Day Five

Day Five (Saturday, March 26th)- Today we arrived in Paris. We woke up early and had a boxed breakfast (which was horrible. Warm milk and corn flakes and orange juice) so we could get to the train station in time. We arrived on time, made it through customs, grabbed a better breakfast and headed towards France. The train was nice, comfortable, and clean, but we ended up having a 45 minute delay due to an accident on the tracks. All in all it wasn't too bad.

When we finally reached Paris we all left the station and headed toward the bus. The train station is located in a very sketchy part of Paris and the kids first impression was the smell of B.O. and urine and a man peeing on the wall. As we loaded onto the bus I promised Paris would get better.
About 45 minute later we were at the hotel (Mercure). The train delay actually worked in our favor because most of the rooms were ready for check-in when we arrived. (Europe doesn't really do early check-ins).
The kids got into their rooms , showered, changed and met back up downstairs. We then hopped on the RER (the metro line that goes outside of town) and made our way to the Champs-Elysees. The RER was disgusting. London's subway system was so much cleaner, but we toughed it out. :) As we walked out of the metro station we were met by a beautiful view of the Arc de Triomphe. The group then split up and we were allowed to go shopping and sightseeing within the area for the next 2 1/2 hours. Within 5 minutes of splitting up one of my chaperone was almost hit by two motorcyclists due to looking both ways before crossing the street, we were harassed by a Gypsy and a student was already suckered into buying a knock-off purse. We then spilt up even more and continued to walk down the Champs-Elysees. We stopped by Louis Vuitton, some souvenir shops and the Disney Store. Normally I wouldn't have gone in, but I was hoping they might have something Alicey that I haven't seen. They did and I bought it!!! It is the cutest little Alice doll ever and I know my Alice is going to love it. After a couple hours the group was all supposed to meet at the Adidas shop located at the end of the Champs-Elysees right before a nice little park. When the time arrived that we all were told to meet we were missing two students. This was not the first time our group was late and I doubt it would be the last, but I began to worry more and more. As we stood there waiting clouds filled the sky and it began to pour. The two girls that were late are usually very punctual and trustworthy. So the fact that they were 20 minutes late began to worry me even more. The more I worried the more rain began to pour and the more I started to freak out.
Finally we sent the group off to dinner and one of the other chaperons and myself waited behind for the girls. We started to fear the worst and began thinking about call the police and US embassy and whatnot when we found the two girls walking toward us. It turns out they hadn't listened carefully to the instructions for meeting up and instead of meeting at the Adidas store they waited under an Adidas display two blocks away. Once we found them my stress level died down, but I was soaked all the way through my jacket, my sweater, shirt and under shirt.

Wow.

But we did finally make it to the restaurant (Flam's) and had a nice little pizza meal in a very cool hole in the wall type if setting. They brought down lots of varieties in pizza and even ended with a couple of dessert pizzas too.

After dinner we spent some more time looking around at shops in hopes of finding a pastry shop and once we did we headed back toward the metro line so we could get back to the hotel. We got lost and all of the chaperones had a different idea of what to do, but finally we made it back. We all went into our rooms and passed out.

What a day.